THE state committee of CPI(M) has strongly condemned an attack on Ajay Kumar, leader of the legislature party in the state assembly.  A member of the state secretariat, he was attacked on May 29, around 10 pm at the CPI(M) district office in Samastipur. The Bibhutipur MLA was also attacked on May 2; he narrowly escaped. The attack on May 29 appears a part of the same conspiracy and is highly condemnable. Security guards who were with Ajay Kumar were badly injured. The attackers also destroyed property at the Party office and damaged a vehicle standing there.

This attack on the office, which is located close to the Railway station, and police area, at a time when the office was being shut for the day, shows the law and order in the state has collapsed and has emboldened the criminals. The state committee demanded a high-level investigation of the attack and unveiling of political conspiracy behind it.

Immediately after the incident, the district committees, Party units were called upon and a protest day was observed on May 31. Effigies of the chief minister, Nitish Kumar were burnt, and protests were held at all levels across the state.

In Patna, state secretary Awadhesh Kumar, Central Committee member, Arun Kumar Mishra, state secretariat member, Rampari, Ganesh Shankar Singh, state committee member Manoj Kumar, and other members staged a protest.

Large-scale protests were held in other districts, in which other members of the secretariat and state committee- Lallan Chowdhary, Shyam Bharti, Prabhuraj Narayan Rao, Vinod Kumar, Rajendra Prasad Singh, Ramshray Singh, Sarangdhar Paswan, Ahmad Ali, and others participated. Participation of people in the protest day was high.

Even before the protests of May 31, Samastipur superintendent of police (SP) was gheraoed by CPI(M) members on the next day of the attack at the party office. Awadhesh Kumar, Arun Kumar Mishra, Lallan Chowdhary, Shyam Bharti, Manoj Prasad Sunil, Neelam Devi, and other CPI(M) leaders, along with CPI MLA from Bakhri Suryakant Paswan and CPI(ML) leaders participated in this protest. Manoj Kumar Gupta headed the protest meeting.

Addressing the protesters, Awadhesh   Kumar said Samastipur is one of the strongholds of the Party. It has been at the centre of a long struggle against the feudal system. Dozens of CPI(M) workers and leaders have been killed. Land struggle, struggle against atrocities by feudal lords, and on issues related to common people, our comrades have always led these struggles. This assembly election was a challenge for us, but with our hard work and the support of the people of Bibhutipur, we won. Ajay has been regularly visiting health centers and bringing out the reality of poor healthcare and government apathy.

He attacked Nitish Kumar and said that even elected representatives are not safe anymore. He said if the chief minister cannot manage the state he should resign on moral grounds. Arun Kumar Mishra said this is not an ordinary attack, it is politically motivated. He said Ajay Kumar has been vocal against corruption in his area, because of this he has been a target of antisocial elements in Bibhutipur and surrounding areas. It is once again clear that criminals rule the roost in Bihar. Nitish Kumar has surrendered in front of criminals.

Ajay Kumar, describing the incident, said, "I would park my car at the Party office every night and walk down to my house which was nearby. On May 29, I reached the Party office at 6 pm and was here till late. I informed my family at my residence that I would be staying at the office that night. Around 10.30 pm, dozens of goons came and started banging the gates. When my security guards saw all this, they saved me somehow. Their intention might have been to attack me on my way home. However, coincidentally that night I decided to stay at the Party office, and they attacked there".

The MLA's guard, Anil Ram said, “Around 12-15 people were there at the Party office. They broke the lock on the main gate and damaged a vehicle standing outside. When we tried to stop them, we were attacked. They were targeting the MLA. Ajay was on the first floor of the Party office at that time.”

It is known that another attack was made on him earlier in May. On May 2, he was attacked by goons who were riding a motorbike, in the Ujiarpur police station area near Yogipur chowk. Ajay Kumar narrowly escaped. A group of representatives of CPI(M) had met Samastipur SP, Manavjit Singh Dhillon, and urged him to look into the matter. They had demanded that the bike riding goons be identified and booked. The SP had assured Party leaders of appropriate action.

Party's Samastipur district committee in its press release said that since Ajay Kumar is raising matters related to corruption, poverty, and other burning issues, the feudal-criminal nexus is openly carrying out attacks on him to silence his voice. The situation needs to be firmly addressed.